30 Days of Grilled Cheese...Damn right I did

I had no intention of taking on a task like this. But, on March 31st, when I read the following day would be the official start to an entire month dedicated to everyone's favorite comfort food, I gladly accepted the challenge..brought on by my husband. I think it was a secret ploy to get me to make him somethings he loves everyday. 

~Day 1~

Tomato and American Cheese with a side of yellow mustard on Whole Wheat...my go to favorite

~Day 2~ 

Caramelized Onions, Cream Cheese, American, Cheddar and Mozzarella on Whole Wheat

~Day 3 ~ 

Cheddar Cheese, Bacon and Fresh Pineapple on Potato Bread...Hawaii Throw Back

~Day 4 ~ 

Mediterranean Grilled Cheese with Feta Cheese, Roasted Red Peppers 

and Spinach on Vienna Bread

~ Day 5 ~

Turkey Club with Bacon, Avocado, Tomato and American Cheese on Whole Wheat Potato

~ Day 6 ~ 

Quesadilla Grilled Cheese with Avocado, Cheddar Cheese, Tomato, Cilantro, 

Hot Pepper Relish and Cholula on a Multi grain Wrap

~ Day 7 ~

 Pizza Grilled Cheese with Ricotta, Parmagiana , Mozzarella, Provolone and Pepperoni 

on Italian Bread with a side of homemade marinara sauce

~ Day 8 ~ 

Grilled Cheese with Cheddar, Bacon and Apple Slices

~ Day 9 ~

Muffelatta inspired Grilled Cheese with Pepper Ham, Salami, Provolone, 

Green Olive Tapenade and Roasted Red Peppers on Onion Rye

~ Day 10 ~ 

Grilled Cheese with Spinach, Artichokes, Provolone and Asiago Cheese on

  Whole Wheat Potato Bread

~ Day 11 ~ 

Grilled Cheese with Swiss Cheese and Ham on Onion Rye with Coarse Ground Mustard

~ Day 12 ~

 Cuban inspired Grilled Cheese with Ham, Cheddar, Green Olives on Italian Bread

My favorite grilled cheese!

~ Day 13 ~ 

Veggie Grilled Cheese with Feta, Avocado, Roasted Red Peppers and 

Hummus on Italian Bread

 ~ Day 14~ 

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese with Shredded Chicken, Frank's Red Hot, 

Cheddar and Blue Cheese Crumbles

~ Day 15~ 

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese with Cheddar, Cream Cheese, 

Chipotle Gouda and Fresh Jalapenos

~ Day 16 ~ 

Caprese Grilled Cheese with Fresh Mozzarella, Tomatoes, Fresh Basil and

 Balsamic Drizzle on Italian Bread

~ Day 17~
Loaded Baked Potato Grilled Cheese with Homemade Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes,
Cheddar Cheese and Bacon

~ Day 18~ 
Chicken Ranch Grilled Cheese with Sauteed Red Onions, Cheddar Cheese,
Ranch Dressing and Bacon on Rye

~ Day 19 ~
BBQ Chicken Grilled Cheese with Cheddar Cheese and Sweet Baby Ray's

~ Day 20 ~ 
Mac n' Cheese Grilled Cheese with Chipotle Gouda and Swiss Cheese

 

~ Day 21 ~ 

Loose Meat Grilled Cheese with Sauteed Onions and Mushrooms, Ground Beef, 

5 Cheese Beschamel Sauce, topped with Chipotle Gouda and Mayo

This was my husband's favorite. Kinda tasted like hamburger helper!

~ Day 22 ~

 Grilled Cheese with Homemade Pesto, Tomato and Four Cheese Blend on Italian Bread

~ Day 23 ~ 

Reuben Grilled Cheese with Roasted Turkey, Sauerkraut,
Homemade Thousand Island Dressing and Swiss Cheese on Marble Rye

~Day 24 ~

Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese with Pepper Jack and 4 Blend Cheese on Multi grain Whole Wheat

~Day 25~ 

Grilled Cheese with Fresh Strawberries, Brie, Bacon Crumbles and Honey on Wheat Bread

~ Day 26 ~ 

Grilled Cheese with Tiramisu Marscapone, Fresh Raspberries and
Dark Chocolate Ganache on Sweet Bread

My favorite dessert one!

~ Day 27~
Grilled Cheese with Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips on Sweet Bread

~ Day 28~
 Grilled Cheese with Marscapone and Ricotta Cannoli Filling with
Chocolate Chips on Sweet Bread

~Day 29~ 

Grilled Cheese with Goat Cheese, Noni's Homemade Peach Preserves and 

Brown Sugar on Sweet Bread

~ Day 30 ~

 Grilled Cheese with Goat Cheese, Nutella and Banana Slices on Sweet Bread

This was my husband's favorite dessert one!

I didn't include any recipes for these since I figured they're all pretty self explanatory. But if you want to know anything more about assembly or ingredients, just ask! The most important tip I can offer when it comes to grilled cheese is to thoroughly butter your pan. Do not use a cooking spray! I have to give my husband credit for this technique. Take a stick of butter and unwrap a little bit of one end. Use it directly on the pan, which should be at medium low, to evenly and lightly coat it with the perfect amount of butter. Always repeat before flipping to get a nice toasty brown top and bottom. If you have a thick sandwich, you may want to put some weight on it using a plate.  If the cheese is not as "melty" as you would like, just pop it in the microwave for about ten seconds. Just don't burn your grilled cheese and take pictures of it then post them on instagram.

You're Welcome.

My Purple Heaven for Under $100

We bought our house over 3 years ago. As a homeowner, nothing is ever finished. I always swore I would never have one of those "junk room" that hides random crap like photo albums, bins of clothes and workout stuff you don't have time or space always behind a closed door. Well, it happened. After having a room I never entered, and after falling in love with meditation during a vacation in Hawaii, I decided we needed to completely empty out our non working "computer/library room." It consisted of an ancient desk top computer and printer that didn't even work on a old crappy desk my husband had from high school, too many books I'll never look at again, random things hanging on the wall including a calendar from 2013 and of course bins of clothes...
















First step was to pick out a color. We went completely "safe" with the colors in the rest of the house so I knew I wanted something different. My husband on the other hand is a little resistant to bright colors. He felt the mint hospital green was an acceptable color for a meditation room. Mmmm...NO.  I talked him in to letting me do whatever I wanted including using purple, yellow and orange.  We agreed on "Butterfly Garden" for the wall color. My husband likes picks colors that have suitable names. We work amazingly well together painting and knocked it out in a few hours.

Over the next couple weeks, I made throw pillows. Yes, this took weeks. My sewing machine had some issues. I bought it brand new at a second hand store but sometimes we just don't get along. I ended up hand sewing the last pillow because I just didn't have the patience anymore...surprise, surprise. But I love how they came out.

It took some time but not much money at all. I'm good at finding deals anywhere and everywhere. If you want to redo a room in your house, use stuff you already have. Some of the things in this room were originally in other rooms in my house not getting much attention.

I found some cool wall hangings in the meantime for super cheap. My brother got a me a Groupon for a canvas print for Christmas and I knew I had to get a picture of Hawaii printed. My friend Steve takes some pretty awesome pictures.  My sister got me a hammock chair for a house warming present that we could never find a home for. It is now THE focal point and coolest part of this room.  The straw mat we scored at the flea market last year for $3. Square mirrors were $20 at Walmart.  Luckily, my husband is OCD and lined them up perfectly! Fabric and pillows were the most expensive thing from Jo-Ann's but with a coupon and teacher discount was only about $40 along with a mini water feature. I also bought contact paper to makeover the old ugly bookshelf. So easy and looks so much better! The gold lotus decal I got on Amazon for about $25. The wire statue I made in college and the few other things I had around the house.

I now have a meditation space, workout area and just a pretty awesome room to hang out in.

 

  

Zoe loves the hammock chair too

Three Meals, One Meat

Steak tips. Try them. They're from the part of a cow not really exercised which results in the moistest, juiciest most succulent piece of meat....especially marinated for several hours.  If you don't typically like steak because of its texture, you must at least try steak tips.  I came across The Butcher's Blog that had some great ideas and info on cooking steak.

Grilled is our favorite way to eat them... and mostly everything else. It literally takes about 8 minutes to cook these since they're not very thick. I throw them in a ziploc baggie in the morning with some marinade...usually some kind of teriyaki sauce...and my husband grills them when it's time for dinner while I prep the sides...grilled sweet potatoes and crispy asparagus fries.

 We had a bunch of steak tips to cook and as delicious as they were, we couldn't eat them all. I ate all the potatoes and veggies so I had to do something else with the steak. My husband is not a big fan of leftovers.

This is an attachment from my Cuisinart emulsion blender
 that I use ALL the time

Between all the grilled cheeses I figured we needed a nice salad. In my fridge, I had fresh cilantro, lime and avocado. This has to be one of my absolute favorite food combinations. If it was an ice cream flavor, I'd eat it. I pureed this with some fresh garlic, olive oil, fresh pepper relish made from my garden and a little bit of water to smooth it out. That's it. Drizzle it over some romaine, red onion, and tomatoes with last night's teriyaki steak tips...you have a brand new meal. My husband loved it and even took it for lunch the next day. So fresh and so clean!

Even after the salad we still had some steak left. I had some cherry tomatoes left in my fridge that were a little wrinkly...definitely not ones that would pop nicely in your mouth. I could never throw them away, so I made a sort of pico de gallo with them using fresh jalapenos, red onion, lime juice, olive oil and fresh garlic.  I also had some avocado dressing left and always have black beans. We used to be huge fans of refried beans but I switched over to black beans and will never go back. They're healthier and much more appealing to look at.  Slice up some steak..I had some cooked chicken too left over from my grilled cheeses. Grab your Cholula, spicy cheeses, whole wheat tortillas, and some sour cream. Chow time.

 

You're Welcome.

Ooooh, meatballs on sticks!?! They're actually cake pops, thanks.

Cake pops have been popping up everywhere. I made them a few years ago minus the sticks...easy to just pop in your mouth. It's sort of a gross concept to me. You take some cake. Put it in a bowl. Add some frosting. Mash together. Roll into balls. Cover in chocolate. Something about mashing the cake and mixing the frosting then rolling it into balls is just unappetizing to me. However, the end result is pretty fricken good. I've decided after several attempts, I will stick to just eating these and not making them.

I was making carrot cake cupcakes for an order. They didn't exactly turn out as nice as I wanted them too.  My mom's recipe I use is super moist and needed some tweaking in order to be turned into successful cupcakes. The first batch didn't turn out so good so I figured I'd try out some cake pops.

I unwrapped them, threw them in a bowl and plopped in some cream cheese and buttercream frosting and went to town. No measuring and who doesn't like cream cheese buttercream with carrot cake?! I had some nice little balls.  They were not exactly round and flattened out a bit when I put them on the parchment paper, but I figured they'd be fine once they were dipped in chocolate. I put them in the freezer...another mistake. Apparently you should not freeze you pops.  A few hours later, I took them out, melted some chocolate, which happened to be orange, and stuck em on a stick and dipped. This is the most tedious and time consuming process ever. Here's what I got...lol

 Scrap that. No way I could sell or even serve these. I can just imagine people coming up to me remarking on my variety of baked goods...cupcakes AND meatballs?!? Seriously, they look like meatballs. The chocolate coating only further emphasized the lumpiness of each ball. Back in the freezer they went until I could decided what to do with them. One week later, they actually tasted pretty good...for breakfast.

I thought my relationship with cake pops was over until my friend asked if I could do some for her sister's baby shower. I could not refuse because I absolutely adore this family. I never get worried about doing orders for people but with my cake pop disasters, I wasn't looking forward to the outcome. Chocolate chip cookie dough was the flavor... and I've got an amazing recipe for it. No matter how crappy they turned out, at least I knew they would taste good.  I was able to get them a little rounder this time, and didn't freeze them. Voila! Not too shabby.

Reading this Cake Pop tutorial from Decorate This! did help a bit.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Makes 50 cake pops or spoonfuls for days

2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tbs vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Add flour. Add milk. Fold in chocolate chips. Eat.


You're Welcome.